BiPAP (Bi-Level Positive Air Pressure) devices or Bi-level PAP are breathing devices that use bi-level positive airway pressure to treat patients with central and obstructive apnea.
Bi-level positive airway pressure means that the machine delivers air under higher pressure as the sleeper inhales, and switches to a lower pressure during exhalation to make it easier to breathe out. Some of the benefits of a BiPAP machine include: 1) patients have good respiratory rates with BPAP machines; 2) the therapy is effective in terms of clinical status and improvement in blood gas levels; 3) the technology for BiPAP, named expiratory pressure relief (C-Flex), monitors the patient's airflow during his/her expiration and the air pressure is adjusted in response to the patient's needs. Toward the end of the expiration, the pressure is increased again to prevent airway collapse.
The core of a Bi-Flex Pressure Relief system is an adaptive flex pressure relief system called Bi-Flex to sense your breathing patterns and then provide pressure relief at key points during inhalation and exhalation to provide a more natural breathing experience. The air pump is within the housing with simple processor controls and readouts connected to a mask that fits over the nose and mouth, with the air hose running into the mouth.
The current state of commercial products is that BiPAP machines are a breathing apparatus that optimizes the positive pressure to the airway of a patient. The apparatus is configured to detect flow limitations in the patient airway from an analysis of inspiratory flow waveforms. The airway pressure settings is raised, lowered or maintained depending on whether a flow limitation has been detected.
The standard BiPAP product does not include readings of oxygen sensor levels, CO2 levels, and blood pressure. These are important readings especially since some users of BiPAP machines also use oxygen during the night. BiPAP machines do not commonly include a supply of oxygen, nor do they have a blood pressure monitor. While the standard BiPAP machine has a sensor to determine when the user is breathing in and breathing out, it doesn't provide additional diagnostics, including monitoring when the patient is in distress, resting energy levels, and respiration levels.
There are separate pieces of equipment to these tasks, oxygen masks, see patent #U.S. Pat. No. 9,138,169 B2, infrared sensors are used in pulse oximeter which is placed on the finger, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,859A, and wrist based blood pressure monitors, but no product currently on the market or currently with a patent or patent application includes all these features in one unit with a processor cable of reading the data and reacting to the data.
Other potential useful features that current products don't include are self-cleaning features for the mask. This is a major drawback for users as bacteria can form in the mask. Another drawback is a lack of battery backup, both for use in the home if power goes out, or if the user goes and in the woods. Current equipment also does have data logging capabilities or the ability to transfer data wirelessly to an outside monitoring site.
The deficiencies as listed above in current equipment include:                1. no readings of O2 levels and no ability to add O2 supply and or to adjust O2 supply as needed;        2. no ability to measure exhaled flow and O2 and CO2 levels;        3. no ability to take blood pressure readings;        4. no self-cleaning capabilities;        5. no battery backup;        6. no ability to measure respiratory levels;        7. no ability to measurement of resting energy levels;        8. the lack of a processor capable of reading CO2, O2 and exhaled air flow;        9. the lack of a processor capable of taking CO2, O2, and in and out airflow measurements and dictating changes in operation as required, setting of alerts when required, data logging readings and information at appropriate intervals and wireless transferring of that data to an outside source.        
Some of the current deficiencies have been covered by patents by others. Adding the ability to read and adjusting oxygen levels has been addressed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,512,938 and patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,187 and application US 20070283958. The ability to measure respiratory levels, which is an additional and useful feature, is addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,960. The ability to measure resting energy is addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,960. The ability to measure the exhaled air for O2 and CO2 levels is addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,038.
No patent, patent application or current product on the market address the need for battery back-up or self-cleaning. These are the two unique features being added to the BiPapp machine in the proposed device in this application. Nor do patents, patent applications or current products have a process designed to take CO2, and O2 measurements, and in and out airflow measurements dictating changes in operation as required, as well as setting off alerts when required.